Tales of the Gold Satin 49ers Jacket: One person’s trash …

I absolutely love the Thelma and Louise-ness of our latest Tales of the Gold Satin 49ers Jacket entry — brought to my attention by close friends and Santa Cruz residents Emily Hose and Emily Halbig.

The pair rescued the abandoned jacket in dramatic fashion from the side of Highway 1 and brought it back to life. A non-factory addition, the word “FAITHFUL,” has been applied across the back. It is, in my opinion, the coolest jacket ever.

I asked Emily and Emily to send in a recent photo, which is included at the end of the interview.

Q: How long have you known each other?

Emily Hose: I moved to Santa Cruz in 2005, and I was looking on Craigslist for a slow pitch softball team to play on. Emily had an ad up saying she needed more girls, and at the end it said “Go Giants!” I said “OK, this is going to be my team.” We played on the same team for a couple of years. Emily got married in 2010 and I was in her wedding.

Q: What were you doing when you found the jacket?

Emily Halbig: It was summer 2009. We might have been driving back from a Giants game, but that might be too good to be true. We were driving south (on Highway 1) from Santa Cruz toward the Aptos area. Emily was driving and I was in the passenger seat. There wasn’t a lot of traffic that day.

Q: You must have been driving fast. How did you spot the jacket?

Emily Halbig: There was kind of a heap of gold on the shoulder. She noticed it right away and knew exactly what it was. After we passed it, we were saying “How can we get that? We need to rescue that jacket.”

We ended up getting off the freeway, making a U-Turn basically to go northbound again, and then exiting to come back around so I could open up the door and reach down and pick it up. I grabbed it, and it became ours.

Q: I think it’s impressive that you recognized the jacket while in a moving car.

Emily Hose: I was so excited because I had been wanting one for a long time. They didn’t make them (in 2005). They’re making them again now, but back then you needed to find an old one from the 1980s. I had been looking on Craigslist. I even tried to buy one from a student. She thought about it, but told me “no.”

Q: Did the jacket emit a heavenly glow from the side of the freeway?

Emily Hose: (Laughs) No. It looked kind of old and dirty. It looked almost brown at first. But when I got closer I could see the gold. It didn’t look like a golden prize from above — it kind of looked like a doubtful risk. I was afraid it was going to be only half a jacket, or mangled or whatever. Just not wearable. But we had to give it a shot.

Q: So Emily Hose is driving, Emily Halbig is riding shotgun. How did this work. Did the car actually stop? I’m imagining a scene from Indiana Jones …

Emily Hose: I don’t think I stopped but when I got close to it, she told me something. Do you remember what you said?

Emily Halbig: “I think you passed it.” Somehow I managed to reach back and get it. We were kind of lucky. It was in that triangular area where the onramp was coming up. There was a little bit of extra space. She didn’t have to stop, but she slowed down quite a bit.

Q: The adrenaline must have been flowing.

Emily Halbig: After we got off the freeway and flipped around, we decided we needed an anthem. Emily turned on some 1990s rock ballad. I wish I could remember. We were singing really loudly and pumping ourselves up.

Emily Hose: I don’t remember what it was.

Emily Halbig: I don’t either. It might have been Jefferson Starship or something.

Q: But then you would have written “WE BUILT THIS CITY” on the back of the jacket.

Emily Hose: That would work too.

Q: So were there bugs on it? Vomit?

Emily Halbig: We were pretty stoked at first. It was huge — Emily is a pretty small girl, and it was a men’s extra large. But the only tear on it was where the collar meets the gold satin. And it wasn’t that dirty.

Q: Did you start to wonder why the original owner threw it away?

Emily Halbig: We were trying to come up with stories. Like maybe someone was ticked off about the game and they threw it out the window as they were driving by.

Q: This was the Mike Singletary era, after all.

Emily Halbig: That’s true. We got it home and she tried it on. It was clearly too big, and there was no lettering on the back. I decided to take it apart, take it in on the sides and shorten it up a little bit.

Q: Where did you get the new lettering?

Emily Halbig: It was hard to find the exact lettering, so I ordered just plain white lettering off eBay and used my own red felt. I took the lettering, and glued it on to the felt and then cut a matching border. Then I stitched it on.

Q: That’s so hard core.

Emily Hose: It’s so awesome. We were going to get “FORTY NINERS,” like a regular jacket. But writing “FAITHFUL” was her brilliant idea. “If I’m going to do this myself, let’s put something original on it.” “FAITHFUL” was the way to go. This was back when the team still stunk.

Emily Halbig: And Emily is as faithful as they come. I’ve always been a huge Giants fan and I’m really into baseball. Football is kind of secondary. Her enthusiasm for the 49ers has made me a football fan.

Q: So now you have this religious relic. Does Emily Hose have full custody? Was there some kind of prenup?

Emily Halbig: Emily has it 100 percent.

Emily Hose: I went to the last game against he Cardinals and I wore it. I wear it sometimes the next day after they lose just to cheer me up. Just to let everyone know that I’m not giving up. Still faithful …

Q: Last question. Will the “FAITHFUL” jacket be at the game next weekend?

Emily Hose: Oh, I wish. It would take a miracle for me to get there. But I’m content to watch it here.

Photo: Courtesy Emily Halbig

Thanks to Emily and Emily, who are, as you can see, completely adorable.

That’s Emily Halbig on the left and Emily Hose on the right. I’m informed that the photo was taken during Emily Halbig’s bachelorette party, at the 2010 Giants game after Buster Posey came up from the minors and hit 3-for-4.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.